Now that our understanding of how Anacreon works under the hood is expanding, I'm sure some people are brainstorming custom units, improvements, traits, designations, etc. that might get added to custom scenarios in the future. Here is an example to kick things off. It's an artifact structure that appears on a small subset of worlds which converts basic infantry into special heavy infantry unit. I am asking the game engine to do something that I have not seen elsewhere (use units as an input), and since I don't know whether that would even work I have commented appropriately.

// This adds a special improvement- the high-G augment facility.
// These irreproduceable structures were built thousands of years ago by the Aelion empire.
// High-gravity augment facilities train and modify standard infantry, turning them into super-soldiers.
//
// Augment facilities differ from normal infantry academies significantly:
//
// a) they convert existing units rather than creating new ones
// b) they are not the primary structure on their world, so they can exist on worlds of any designation
// c) they exist only on a small subset of worlds determined at the time of scenario creation
//
// Smart players might turn high-G worlds into academies, citadels or sector capitals.
// This will provide a continuous stream of basic infantry to convert into heavy infantry.
Trait core.highGravity
// This planetary feature will show up in the same area as mineral abundance
// It signals to players that a world has a high-G augment facility
// We will apply it to a few underground and transuranic worlds at scenario creation.
{
category: feature
name: "high gravity"
}
Trait core.highGfacility {
// This is a special improvement that converts normal infantry into heavy infantry.
// I think it will work without a "role:", provided that it is not considered "industry"
// If it were industry, it would get overwritten when the world gets redesignated.
// These improvements will persist like the "neural processors" still visible on some planets in Alpha 1
// We want it to remain on the world no matter what the world is being used as.
// The player should not be able to build or destroy it.
// Players manually control WU allocation to the structure, similar to the militia base; they can even set it to 100% if they are committed to periodically shipping in infantry from elsewhere.
name: "high-gravity augment facility"
category: improvement
defaultAlloc: { alloc:fixed allocValue:5.0 }
requirements: (core.highGravity)
production: (core.heavyInfantry)
}
ResourceType core.heavyInfantry
{
category: groundUnit
name: "heavy infantry brigade"
isCargo: true
mass: 20.0
halfLife: 5.0
elementCount: 5000
attack: { name:"pressure-caviton bolter" damage:2 type:direct range:0.0 area:0.1 }
// I don't know what messing with range, area, elementcount do to ground units
// so I'm keeping it pretty basic. This unit is tougher than infantry and imperial guards
// but not as strong as armored infantry.
defense: { armor:4 minArea:10.0 counters:{ missile:1 } }
production: {
workUnits: 250.0
inputs: (
{ type:core.infantry amount:1.0 }
)
// This unit requires other units as an input!
// I believe it should work fine, although it probably will not import infantry via trade routes
minTechLevel: 4
}
}
// Add the following code to the creation block of a scenario after player worlds are created
// There is a more elegant way to accomplish this, by modifying worlds at or after generation, but IDK how
// This just adds worlds, which will upset the distribution of world types a little
Table scenario.highGWorldClassTable
{
type: byTrait
value: (
// does not spawn at all in bright nebula, I hope this will not mess things up
(core.inDarkNebula
{ type: table
value: (
(75 core.transuranicWorld)
(25 core.undergroundWorld)
)
}
)
(()
{ type: table
value: (
(75 core.transuranicWorld)
(25 core.undergroundWorld)
)
}
)
)
}
{ create:worlds
count:80
region:sectorRegion
minDist:16
sovereign:core.independent
traits: (
worldTechTable
highGWorldClassTable
core.highImperialCulture
core.highGravity
core.highGfacility // I hope we can add a facility this way
)
resources: (
{ type: core.infantry
value: { type:gaussian
median: { type:byTechAndPopulation
value: (
(preIndustrial 0.1)
(industrial 0.1)
(atomic 0.1)
(digital 0.09)
(spacefaring 0.08)
(fusion 0.07)
(biotech 0.05)
(antimatter 0.04)
(quantum 0.04)
(postIndustrial 0.04)
)
}
low: 150
high: 300
}
}
)
}

- Terraforming; A gate level technology, where you can terraform appropriate worlds over the course of several years. Planets being terraformed would probably have a major hit to productivity (maybe even down to zero).

Last edited by Xephyr on Fri Mar 31, 2017 8:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Project Renegade (Beta) : "The Poor Man's Corporate Command!"
"Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once. " -Julius Caesar as written by William Shakespeare, a notorious permadeath player.

For old-style planet classes I think you would define a worldClass trait for the planet and one or more feature trait for the production modifiers. For example if you were trying to replicate the old Gas Giant class you would create a single trait that has distinct 66% WU cost modifiers for each starship and ramjet class.

I think the letter-class worlds were right to be removed since their names were not meaningful or evocative.

I believe that hostile life worlds would periodically lose population, not troops. They were the only way get to elite troops/ninjas without ambrosia.

How to make it tactically interesting: We'll have a bonus to production that decreases as tech level increases. High technology means that industry isn't as dependent on good working conditions, and the environment starts to hinder production more than help it. This means that they'll be high value targets for low-tech empires and less useful otherwise.

Project Renegade (Beta) : "The Poor Man's Corporate Command!"
"Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once. " -Julius Caesar as written by William Shakespeare, a notorious permadeath player.

Would it be possible to start new scenarios with custom backstories, unique units, world types, doctrines etc? That would make Anacreon really extensible like the modding system in Transcendence, plus even if George doesn't release updates all that often, there would be a lot of content from the community.

I'm thinking of a system where people can "mod" the base game with whatever new features they would like, then release them as new games online. I noticed the old Anacreon had scenario files which were basically plain text and could be edited to create a scenario with custom world positions, with units on those worlds, or AI empires.

There could also be public games and private ones between just a few people. Is there a limit on how many games the size of Beta 2 can run at once on the server? Is the galaxy layout procedural generated, created by hand or a mixture of both (I'm suspecting the former)?

It's unfortunate the source isn't available though... maybe in the future.

Yep, you could write your own scenario and change quite a lot of stuff. One issue is that I suspect that running a game requires a fair bit of server resources and there is a ticket on ministry indicating that old save states are accumulating which suggests to me that the game isn't really in a state to start adding a bunch of additional games.

Is the galaxy layout procedural generated, created by hand or a mixture of both

It seems to be totally procedurally generated, with the code for generating nebula strands in the FallenWorlds file.I suspect that George might generate a couple galaxies and then pick the best one when he runs the scenario.

It seems to be totally procedurally generated, with the code for generating nebula strands in the FallenWorlds file.I suspect that George might generate a couple galaxies and then pick the best one when he runs the scenario.

When the Beta II map was started, we actually got to see it happen on George's stream. There's no hand-picking from what I've seen. It's also revealed that George plays as the Omnithor empire.

I would think that the code is good enough to frequently generate a decent map.

Project Renegade (Beta) : "The Poor Man's Corporate Command!"
"Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once. " -Julius Caesar as written by William Shakespeare, a notorious permadeath player.

Here is a special ground defender (guided missile emplacements) for citadels, so that citadels aren't limited to building crummy basic infantry. This unit is a great value from a WU and resource perspective, but it can't be transported offworld. It uses the light missile launcher component, which is obtained via the same trade route to jumpship autofacs that the citadel already has. I don't know if having a missile-type projectile interacts with basic infantry's missile protection; I hope it does! The flavor would be that this unit is effective against armor (armored infantry, exotroops, even imperial guards) but can be defeated by basic infantry which are too small to target effectively. This unit requires that the default citadel complex improvement be overwritten with a new version capable of building the new unit.

This here's a capital ship. It can probably single-handedly annihilate an entire battlefleet unless outnumbered more than 10,000 to 1. It is absurdly expensive, requiring multiple cycles of production and resources from both nebular and clearspace worlds. It also requires multiple ship components, both low and high tech, and costs millions of work units. In comparison, you could probably build 10000 Typhon starcruisers or something with the same investment.

So... better be worth it right? Well let's see... its main armament, the dreaded Imperialis plasma archcannon will destroy hundreds of ships per combat round, with 960 damage spread over 1.0 area, the only cannon-type weapon to have more AOE than the top tier missile. It has secondary weapons which fire at the same time, the Tempestus lightning turret will take care of smaller ships, firing 10x per combat round (if this is possible). Lastly, the Exterminatus missile bombards planetary defenses from afar with range 40, and 2.0 area will destroy entire wings which come into contact with the antimatter warhead.

The Imperator-class also has shields (if possible), which can nullify cannon damage similar to point defense systems do against missiles. And its most terrifying aspect? It isn't subject to attrition. A handful of these would be enough to win a war, although... it's extremely unlikely an empire will be able to build more than a few.

Disclaimer: yes, it's stupidly overpowered, probably not suggesting it for the base game lol An interesting idea nonetheless, perhaps I'd put it into a custom scenario or something

Here's what I believe is a complete system for implementing gas giants. Gas giants get a bonus to ship production but are slow to develop. Gas giants do not support ground based-defenses like HEL cannons, but gain additional orbital defense options.

It crossed my mind that it should probably be possible to create robotic troops. They would be a high TL industry and probably have some disadvantages, like poorer performance on biospheres than barren worlds.

They could also need some support tech, like the droid control ship in Star Wars, that would make them tactically interesting.

This wouldn't be an alternative to clone banks, since robots probably can't replace a population, but it might make for an interesting contrast between empires if robotic empires flourished on sterile worlds.

Project Renegade (Beta) : "The Poor Man's Corporate Command!"
"Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once. " -Julius Caesar as written by William Shakespeare, a notorious permadeath player.

Anyone know what determines whether a ship is treated as having jump propulsion (requiring a beacon, unless defined as an explorer) vs. warp propulsion (not requiring a beacon)? Ramjets and explorers are specifically defined with tags like FTL: { type:explorer speed:100.0 }, but although jumpships and starships both define FTL with a bare value the game is able to distinguish them somehow.

My guess is that it is some sort of speed threshold but I'm not sure. We know that the game uses the terms jump and warp internally since, e.g., transpace rifts have ftlBarrier: { explorer:true jump:true ramjet:true warp:true tradeRoute:true }